Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2012 10:51:58 -0700 (PDT)
From: Brian Roberson <rtbrno65@yahoo.com>
Subject: Quincy and that unusual friend of his chapter 11

Story is complete fiction, none of the characters or events are real. All
local laws apply. Don't read if under 18.


		  "Quincy And That Unusual Friend Of His"

				Chapter 11


Carol went down the stairs as the Spook Stalkers followed.

"I don't understand. The readings vanished right before we entered the
room. It must have heard us coming and left the house." Ellen said.

"So it can leave the house if it wants to. We might want to check around
the outside of the house too." Michael said.

The Stalkers entered the den as Carol went into the kitchen. It was then
that Dr. Singh came bursting through the front door and stood panting in
the entrance. He had a wild, unkempt, and mad look about him. He had a
blackened left eye from Steve's assault earlier. He was disheveled, sweaty,
and apparently had Steve's pistol in his hand. Gary turned around with his
camera to where the doctor was standing.

"Where is the boy!" Singh yelled as he waved the pistol.

Carol came out of the kitchen and shrieked. Singh quickly glanced into the
other rooms and then bounded up the stairs. Singh reached the top and ran
right to the last door on the left, where he knew he had seen the strange
light in the window. He burst into the bedroom as a startled Quincy quickly
turned his head away from his computer and towards the intruder. Singh shut
the door behind him and leaned his back up against it to hold it shut.

"You've talked to it! Where's the spirit! You've talked to it! I must know!
Please Quincy! Tell me what it said to you! I must know!" To Quincy's
horror, Singh pulled the pistol out, turned it towards himself, and held it
up to his temple.

"Quincy, please...tell me..." Singh sobbed as he cocked the pistol, and he
looked as though he was about to shoot himself with it.

Just then the door was kicked open, and Gary, the bearded camera man, came
bursting through the door. Singh was knocked forward towards the bed and
the pistol landed on the floor near the closet. Gary immediately tackled
Singh and put him into a headlock. Carol had gotten the revolver out of the
master bedroom and appeared at the door holding it in front of her with her
hands trembling. Gary frog walked Singh backwards out into the hall, still
holding him in a headlock.

"Quincy! Are you OK?" She sobbed.

"Mom!" Quincy said with a look of confusion and terror on his face. Gary
dragged Singh by the neck out into the hallway and away from Quincy's
room. Carol rushed into the room, put the revolver down on the bed, and
threw her arms around Quincy, who immediately burst into tears.

"Don't worry!" Michael said as he fumbled his cell phone in his
hands. "We're calling the police now!"

"No! Don't anybody call the police!" Everyone in the hallway turned and saw
Steve at the top of the stairs. He was holding the back of his head with
his right hand where he had been hit. He walked over and repeated for no
one to call the police. "Carol!" Steve yelled. "Is Quincy OK?"

"He is but that man came right into his room!" Carol wailed.

"I'm guessing that since you have cameras all over my house, you have
footage of this man entering here and bothering my son in his room?"

"We certainly do, right on this!" Michael said as he pulled a disc out of
his computer and handed it to Steve. Steve put the disc in his pocket and
walked over to where Gary had Dr. Singh in the headlock and told Gary to
release him. Steve then walked right over to Singh and got right in his
face.

"Get out!" Steve said.

The others all gasped. "Mr. Lenhardt," Michael said. "This man just burst
into here and threatened your son with a pistol!"

"Yes and he assaulted me in my own driveway!" Steve said. He then picked
Singh up by his collar. "I have it all on recording. You get out of this
house and you stay away from my family forever, or I'll use this footage in
court to back up every charge that I can have thrown at you, got it?"

"Steve!" Carol yelled from the doorway with Quincy clinging to her with his
face buried in her busom. "You can't really be serious about letting this
man go! He just assaulted our son!"

"I only want to know what it said to him!" Singh cried out. Steve
immediately slapped him hard across his face and cut his lip.

"GET OUT OF HERE NOW!" Steve yelled into Singh's face. Singh scurried down
the hall, and Steve chased him right down the stairs and out the door. He
stormed back up the stairs over to Carol and Quincy. He took Quincy into
his arms and hugged him close. Quincy buried his face into Steve's chest.

"Oh Dad!" Quincy sobbed.

"It's all right, son. Shhh...it's all right. He's gone now. The bad man is
gone now."Steve said as he hugged Quincy.

"Steve how could you just let that man go like that!" Carol whispered
harshly. Steve then let go of Quincy, who went right back into Carol's
arms. He walked out into the hall and over to Michael and got right in his
face.

"I want all of you idiots out of my house in five minutes or I'm calling
the police and having each of you arrested for aiding and abetting in an
attempted assault on my twelve year old son."

"Sir! Your wife has already signed the agreement to allow us to..."

"You people showed up at my house with that maniac!" He then pulled the
disc out of his pocket. "I have what he did right here! Both myself and my
wife can provide testimony that Sanjay Singh was a member of your
party. That makes you and your TV show liable for what happened just now,
doesn't it? I guess that would null and void any agreement that's been
made, doesn't it?"

Michael smiled at Steve. "Well played. I can see why you went into
politics. It's a fitting profession for you."

"You get the hell out of here, ALL of you, get out! And don't even try to
use any of this footage against me! You won't know what you're dealing
with!"

"Well I guess that your threats are pretty much irrelevant considering that
all of our footage and all of our data is on that disc that I just handed
over to you." Michael said bitterly.

"Get out!" Steve repeated.

The Stalkers quickly gathered up all their equipment, and were out the door
post haste. Once they were gone and out of the driveway, Steve went back
into Quincy's room and hugged him some more while Carol glowered at him.

"Steve, I need to talk to you in the bedroom, please!"

"Quincy, we'll be in the bedroom if you need us, OK?" Steve said. Quincy
nodded and wiped away a tear as Steve hugged him again, and then left to go
into the bedroom with Carol.

Quincy lay on the bed on his side as he listened to his parents argue in
their bedroom. Carol was upset that Steve wouldn't call the police and
Steve was upset that Carol allowed all of those people into the
house. Quincy could hear Carol say that Dr. Singh had showed up with the
Spook Stalkers, and that she had thought that they were from Georgetown
University. Steve apparently let Singh go due to wanting to keep all of
what happened from getting out into the public. Steve had apparently taken
a pretty good blow to the head from a blackjack, but was only momentarily
stunned. Carol wanted to take him to the hospital but Steve didn't want to
go, so they started arguing about that. Quincy could only think about
Singh's insane face as he burst into his room, and the pistol that he was
holding. Eventually, he slipped into a troubled sleep as his parents
argument continued to rage on well into the night.

Quincy woke up from a bad nightmare at around 6 am. There was then a loud
burst of thunder outside from an early morning thunderstorm. He cried out
as the thunder blast shook the house. Steve came rushing into the room and
lay down on the bed behind Quincy, who fell back asleep in his father's
arms.

Quincy woke up late, around 10:00.  Steve had left his bed at some point
during the morning. He trudged over to the bathroom and took a long pee
into the toilet. He was about to flush it, but he remembered that Erik was
probably still down in the sewer pipe, so he walked back to his room
without flushing. As he got dressed he heard his mother out in the hallway.

"Quincy! How many times do I have to tell you to flush!" Quincy winced as
he heard her flush the toilet. He finished getting dressed, and went down
to breakfast.

After an especially long prayer, he and his family tucked into a large
breakfast of bacon, eggs, juice, toast, waffles, and oatmeal. Steve
explained to Quincy that he could count on being safe in the house, and
that they had guns and a security system, so he shouldn't have to worry
about anything like that happening again. Quincy nodded, but he kept
expecting to see Dr. Singh's face pop up through a window, or around a
corner.

After breakfast, Quincy went out to the garage to get the air purifier and
return it to Mr. Williams. He carried it across the driveway and into the
Williams yard. He knocked on the door and Mrs.Williams answered. She was an
older lady with dyed black hair and a Guatemalan accent that fifty years of
living in the US had done nothing to diminish.

"Hello. Mrs. Williams. I live next door. I'm here to return Mr. Williamses
air filter."

"Oh sure, come right on in. Would you like a glass of milk?" Mrs. Williams
said as she let Quincy inside.

"Yes Ma'am. Thank you."

Quincy followed her into the kitchen. She then yelled towards the basement
steps. "Spence! Quincy is here with the air purifier!"

"Okay, Cora! I'll be right up!" Mr. Williams could be heard saying from
down below. Mrs. Williams put the glass of milk in front of Quincy. Quincy
put down the air purifier and started drinking the milk.

Mr. Williams came up and into the kitchen. "Thanks for bringing this back
to me. Did it work like it was supposed to?" He asked.

"Sure, except, I have a couple of questions about it, though." Quincy said.

"Cora, I'll be downstairs with Quincy. Come on, Quincy, follow me. You can
bring your milk with you." Mr. Williams then picked up the purifier and
Quincy followed him downstairs.

Mr. Williams had a nice finished basement with a pool table and a small
bar. Mr. Williams put the filter into a corner.

"So you have a question for me?"

"Yeah...how do you know about Erik?"

"Well what do you know, just the question I was expecting." Mr. Williams
sat on a bar stool facing the sofa, which Quincy sat down on. "I've known
Erik since he was a little guy running around in his diapers. His family
and mine both moved in at the same time, right after they built these
houses."

"I mean...how do you know him...you know...now?"

"You mean how do I know he's still there next door?" Quincy nodded his
head. "Erik and my son Spencer Jr. were always very close friends. Ever
since we all moved in. There used to be a big sandbox out back that they
would play in. We had a baby pool set up for them during the summer. These
fences weren't here then, so they would go back and forth between the
houses. There was another boy across the street and down named Aaron
Bailey. They were all around the same age, so they became The Three
Musketeers. They used to cut through the back to go down to the creek. I
would sometimes go with them and we would catch minnows with a big net that
I had, or we would fish or look for frogs. Looking back I guess I was
reliving my own childhood through those boys." Mr. Williams smiled.

Quincy watched Mr. Williams as a look of pain crossed his face. "Erik was
one of those really nice kids that everybody liked." He said. "He didn't
have a mean bone in his body. He was always smiling and laughing. He was
absolutely bursting with energy. He loved life and it loved him back. He
could be pretty mischievous, but he never meant anything bad by it. When he
was killed..." Mr. Williams voice cracked and he had to clear his throat
while he took off his glasses, rubbed them with his shirt, and put them
back on. "When he was killed, it devastated all of us. My son cried for a
week straight after that. He wasn't even able to hold it together enough to
go to the funeral. I don't think that Aaron Bailey has recovered from it
even to this very day. After Erik died, Aaron started drinking and doing
drugs, skipping school, running away from home. He came from a really big
family and his father was a US Marshall, and a real hard nosed type. Aaron
at one
 point was kicked out of his house and was living off of garbage cans in
the neighborhood here. I finally grabbed Aaron and drove him to his house
and threatened to call the police on his father if they didn't start taking
care of their child. It was a bad situation. Today he works at that DVD
store and lives in a rented basement somewhere. He's usually getting drunk
at that bar up at the shopping center when he's not working."

"Erik got run over by a car, right?"

Mr. Williams went behind the bar, took a large bottle of Smirnoff vodka
out, and poured himself a good sized slug. He did the shot, and returned to
his stool.

"Yes he did. Right in front of your house. It was a horrible scene. Spencer
and Aaron had to see the whole thing happen right in front of
them. Absolutely horrible. The kid who hit him was going the wrong way down
the street at over forty miles an hour. Erik never stood a chance. That kid
commited suicide on the day of Erik's funeral. It was so terrible all
around."

Quincy shuddered at the thought of the horrible images from the accident
that had entered his mind.

"About a year after the accident, sometime in August, Spencer's mother and
I started to become very concerned about him. He became very withdrawn, and
we were starting to hear him having conversations with himself. He would go
over to the house next door, stand in the garage, and then walk away
looking like he was talking to somebody. One night, he came back from the
creek really late. I was sitting out back. When he entered the yard, I saw
a green, fuzzy glow around him. I then began seeing that glow in the
windows of your house from time to time. Finally one day, I stood in front
of my son's bedroom door, and I could clearly hear him having a converstion
with 'Erik' in there. I was starting to wonder what was happening with all
of that. But eventually it all stopped and nothing happened for another
year, until it started again the next August, and then the August after
that. Eventually Spencer started going to high school, moved out to go to
 college, and now lives in Seattle with his wife and our grandson. During
all this time, all the reports about that house next door being haunted
started up, pretty much as soon as the Westergaards moved out. I would see
that green, fuzzy light from time to time, always in August, or very early
September. Other than the Walkers, I don't think that there was one family
that stayed for more than a year in there." Mr. Williams went behind the
bar and poured a second slug of vodka, drained the glass, and sat back on
his stool.

 "One night around Christmas, when Spencer was home from his first year of
college, he told me that he had been in contact with Erik's ghost since a
year after the accident. He said that he went over to borrow something from
The Westergaards, and he saw Erik sitting in the living room and waving at
him. I told him about the strange lights in the windows of that house that
I had seen from time to time, and Junior confirmed to me that it was Erik
that I was seeing. He said they stayed friends right up until he started
going to high school. Spencer said that as he grew up, Erik never did. He
said that every year Erik would show up, and it was as if the previous year
had never even occured, and that it was as if the accident had only just
happened. Eventually Spencer just stopped going over there. I think that's
the reason as to why I was seeing Erik in those windows. He was waiting for
Spencer to come over so that they could play. When Spencer
 stopped going over there, Erik began to show himself to the different
tenants of that house trying to gain a new friend to replace Spencer. I'm
guessing that's how you met him."

"So Erik only shows up for about a month?"

"Yep. Every year right at this time, and every year about this time someone
always winds up moving out of that house in a big hurry, that is except for
last year when the house was empty."

"It was empty last year?" Quincy asked.

"That house was empty for two years before your family moved in."

"Oh...so how did you know that I saw Erik?'"

"I figured it out yesterday when I saw you floating out of your window and
then yelling 'come on, Erik' while running across my yard to get away from
a ghost hunting team that was in your house. " Mr. Williams smiled.

"Oh." Quincy said embarrased. "So how did you know that the air thingy
would hide Erik from them?"

"I didn't. I just guessed." Mr. Williams laughed.

"Spence! I need your help up here in the kitchen, quick!" Cora yelled from
the top of the stairs.

"Be right there!" He yelled. "You can let yourself out the back. Here, I'll
take that for you." Mr. Williams then took the glass of milk, which had
grown warm in Quincy's hand. Quincy watched him go up the stairs, and he
then got up and let himself out through the sliding glass door.

Quincy returned to his house and went up to his room. When he entered he
saw Erik sitting indian style on his dresser.

"Hi Quincy!"

"Hey Erik!" Quincy smiled. "Well those people are gone obviously."

"Yeah, I went into your parents room first to look down into the driveway
and make sure they left."

"I hope you don't get mad, but they sort of all left last night." Quincy
said as he sat on the desk chair.

"Oh really!?" Erik said with a peeved expression.

"Yeah, I'm sorry. I guess I should have tapped on the pipes or something."
Quincy said.

"Oh well. It wasn't too bad down there, kind of peaceful actually. So how
did you get rid of them?"

"One of them beat up Dad and waved a gun around in here."

"What?!"

"Yeah, it was that doctor guy. He went crazy and tried to force me to tell
him about you, so Dad kicked them all out."

"He's lucky I wasn't in here! I would have made him pay!" Erik said.

"I guess it worked out good because Dad took the disc that had all the
proof of you on it."

"That's good, so hey, let's go down to the garage so that I can stand in
front of that machine some more!" Erik said with a grin.

"I took that back to Mr. Williams today."

"Oh man!" Erik said in a tone of extreme disappointment.

"What? I thought that thing tickled you when you had to stand in front of
it."

"Yeah it did." Erik grinned.

"Erik...you didn't rub your weiner on it or something did you?" Quincy
whispered with a grin. Erik blushed beet red and both of the boys burst
into peals of giggles. Just then the doorbell rang downstairs and Quincy
just about jumped out of his skin. He was still nervous about what had
happened the night before.

"Hey, did you find out how Mr. Williams knew about me?" Erik asked.

"Yeah, Spencer told him about you. He's known that you've been here this
whole time."

"Spencer told him... of course..." Erik said with a dreamy, far away look,
like he was remembering something long forgotten.

"Quincy! Timothy's here!" Carol yelled from the base of the stairs.

"Timothy! I forgot all about Timothy coming over!"

"Timothy's coming over?" Erik asked with irritation.

There was then a single knock on his door, and Timothy came walking in. He
had a stack of comic books under one arm and a board game under the other.

"Quincy! I brought my Hungry Hungry Hippos game and some of my Marvel
collection!" He said proudly as he dumped these items onto Quincy's
bed. Quincy looked at Erik who looked back at Quincy, and then looked at
Timothy. "Thanks for inviting me over, Quincy! No one has ever invited me
to their house before!" Timothy said as he sat down with a plop onto the
bed.

"Sure, Timothy, no problem!' Quincy said. Erik let out a brief giggle.

"Wow, this bed feels really soft and comfortable! Maybe I can sleep over
sometime!" Timothy said.

"Yeah, maybe so. " Quincy said. Erik giggled again and Quincy shot him an
annoyed look.

"So what are you doing sitting there without your computer on or anything?
Are you just staring at the wall?"

"No Timothy, he's picking his nose!" Erik said with a grin.

"Actually I was about to turn it on." Quincy said after shooting Erik a
nasty look.

Timothy started bouncing up and down on the bed from where he sat. "So go
ahead and turn it on then."

"In a minute." Quincy said.

"Why do you keep it so cold in your room?" Timothy asked while he rubbed
his arms.

"It feels fine to me!" Erik laughed.

"It's the air conditioning, it's really strong in here or something."
Quincy said.

"So you do you wanna look through my comic books with me?" Timothy asked.

"Sure, I guess." Quincy said. Erik made a loud, yawning noise and Quincy
shot him a dirty look. He could tell that Erik was going to be a big pain
in the ass while Timothy was there.

"Actually, Timothy, I was kind of thinking that maybe my Mom could drive us
to the mall, or maybe we can go swimming at the rec center." Quincy glanced
over at Erik, who looked shocked and angry.

"Oh come on, Quincy! You're not really going to leave me here by myself,
are you?" Erik said.

"I will if you don't stop!" Quincy blurted out without thinking.

"Stop what?" Timothy said.

"Huh...?  Quincy said, trying to play it off.

"You said you will if I don't stop. I don't understand what you mean."
Timothy said. Erik burst into laughter on the desk.

"No, I ...uh..I was just talking to myself." Quincy stammered.

"You said that to yourself?"

"Yeah, I say things to myself sometimes." Quincy said.

"Isn't that a sign that somebody is menatlly ill? " Timothy asked. "I mean,
it's OK if you are. I feel a little menatlly ill sometimes." Timothy then
put his fingers on his lips and started making a high pitched bibbling
noise while shaking on the bed like a spastic.

"Why did you make friends with this kid?" Erik said with genuine wonder in
his voice.

"That's MENTALLY ill, Timothy, not 'menatlly'. Quincy said.

"I was just kidding. So yeah, I think swimming sounds cool. I'd rather do
that then go to the mall." Timothy said.

"So do you feel sorry for him or something?" Erik asked.

"Shut up!" Quincy said to Erik.

"What? But it was your idea!" Timothy said in a hurt voice.

"No, not you!' Quincy said.

Timothy looked puzzled for a second."So did you want to go the mall instead
of swimming? We can do that instead I guess, whatever you want is fine with
me." Timothy said, sounding like he was trying not to make Quincy mad.

"I'll decide in a minute what I want to do." Quincy said while he glowered
at Erik.

"Well then you should come over here and check out my Spiderman comics
then!" Timothy grinned as he patted the space on the bed next to him. Erik
rolled his eyes upwards.

Quincy's mom then called and said that she was going to the store and that
the boys would need to go with her.

"Okay, we'll be right there! Come on, let's go Timothy."

Quincy and Timothy got up to leave the room. Quincy glanced over at Erik as
he walked out, and Erik gave him a sour look that was filled with jealousy.

Quincy, his mom, and Timothy all drove to the store. Quincy's dad had to go
to his office, so he took a Congressional limo into town, and he had
already left by the time they set out to the grocery store. They went to
the Safeway and spent a little over an hour there while Carol did her
weekly shopping. After they returned, Quincy and Timothy went back up to
the bedroom. When they opened the door, they both gasped in shock.

Timothy's comic books were strewn all over the room. They were all over the
bed, on the floor, on the desk, everywhere. Some were taken out of their
numbered plastic covers. Timothy let out a big groan.

"Oh no! My books! What happened?"

"Don't worry, I'll help you clean them up." Quincy said with a reluctant
sigh.

Quincy and Timothy spent the next hour collecting the books, getting them
returned to the proper plastic covers, and getting them all
resorted. Timothy was upset and had tears in his eyes the whole time. When
they were done, Timothy said he wanted to go home. Quincy and Timothy went
downstairs and Timothy called his mother to come get him. While they waited
for her to show up outside in the driveway, Quincy apologized again to
Timothy and assured him that he had nothing to do with what happened to the
books, but Timothy didn't seem to want to hear it.

"I guess I'll see you in school on Monday, Timothy." Quincy said as Timothy
got in the car.

"OK, I guess." Timothy muttered as he closed the door. Quincy watched the
car pull out of the driveway and he then headed back into the house and up
to his room. As he entered his room, he saw Erik sitting on the desk and
laughing.

"Erik, how could you do that!" Quincy said as he closed the door. "That was
not cool!"

Erik continued to laugh. "Did you see the look on his face...?" He
chuckled.

"Yes I did! I can't believe you actually did that! That was so mean of
you!"

"Oh come on! It was just a joke! I didn't hurt any of the comics!" Erik
said.

"That's not the point! I brought home a guest and you were mean to him the
whole time! I thought that you were supposed to always be nice!"

"It was just a joke, Quincy! I didn't mean anything bad by it!" Erik
objected.

"Erik, I want you to go away..." Quincy said as he turned his back to Erik.

"What?"

"I want you to go away. I don't want to see you."

"Don't want to see me?" Erik said softly, his voice trembling.

"Yes! I'm so mad at you right now! Just go! And if it's next August before
I see you again, then that's fine! If it's never again at all, that's fine
too!"

"But, Quincy..." Erik whimpered.

"GO!"

Erik's lips began to quiver and a choking sob left his throat as he
disappeared. Quincy started to take the sheets off of his bed to have them
washed, and then threw them back down onto the bed. He then sat down at his
desk and buried his face in his hands.



			     End of chapter 11